Books - Absolute Convictions : My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America

A family on the front lines of America's war over abortion When he immigrated to the United States in 1973, Eyal Press's father never imagined that his career as an obstetrician might put him and his family in mortal danger. On October 23, 1998, Dr. Press learned that his colleague, Dr. Bernard Slepian, the only other physician in Buffalo, New York, who performed abortions, had just been shot dead through his kitchen window by a radical activist. With a single bullet, the decade-long battle over abortion in Buffalo had escalated from demonstrations and threats to murder. In Absolute Convictions, Eyal Press returns to Buffalo seeking to understand why the righteousness of the anti-abortion movement would inspire such violent rage. Press combines a retelling of his family's experience with firsthand accounts from protesters arrested outside his father's clinic, patients who braved the gauntlet of demonstrators, and politicians who attempted to appease both sides. Through the Press family and Buffalo we see, as never before, the people behind the absolute convictions that have divided our nation for the past three decades. With remarkable sensitivity, Press has written both a gripping narrative account of a family and a city caught in the crossfire of moral fervor and individual rights, and a rich social history that explores the economic and social roots of the fierce battle over abortion.

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